In the case of cylinder running surfaces that are produced by a thermal coating process, a large part of the oil retaining volume is accounted for by the pores exposed during the honing. It is known that different porosities distributed over the cylinder running surface can improve the tribological properties during the operation of the engine. Consequently, the required oil retaining volume differs over the length of the cylinder running surface. Thus, slightly more oil retaining volume is required at the points of reversal of the piston movement than between these two points. Specifically at the upper point of reversal, influences such as for example high thermal and mechanical loading mean that there is the risk of an oil film breaking down.
FR 2924365 A1 discloses applying a coating by a thermal spraying process in such a way as to produce different porosities over the cylinder running surface, in that spraying parameters, for example the duration and/or the rate of the spraying operation, the preheating temperature or the composition of the sprayed material, are varied during the spraying. It is disadvantageous that a constant spraying process cannot be performed here, but instead the spraying parameters have to be set appropriately to correspond to the respective position of the spraying head.